I don't think you guys realise the amount of trouble you can get into by spending money that appears in your bank account by mistake.

Not only will you have to pay it back you will literally get sent to jail once whoever's money it is realises whats happened.

A women in Australia got accidentally sent 2 million dollars and she spent it on holidays/gifts, now she has to pay it all back and is now facing jail time - her excuse is she thought it was a one lump payment from her former husband for her kids (it wasn't) Shes now had to sell her house and pretty much all her stuff to pay it back and is going to court now trying to avoid being sent to jail.

You can't just say "HURR NOT MY FAULT" you will get fucked up if you spend it...it's only a matter of time

the obvious answer is wire it off to some shady Caribbean bank and then send it off to china then Israel some country that hates Israel then Switzerland where you have it mailed to you in cash.

Why?

The bank/government would still be able to confiscate 10 grand worth of your property in the event the money was not in your account, and you would still face charges... also, doing that money exchange would be expensive as fuck.

Make sure that it's completely safe to use the money (call the bank etc), and then I'd have no problem with it.

To declare that a personal, inner experience gives certainty about the workings of the universe is to assign far too much value to one’s subjective sense of conviction.
I’m not that arrogant.
The brain, marvelous instrument though it is, isn’t infallible. It can misfire, seize or hallucinate, and it can do so in a way that’s utterly indistinguishable from reality to the person experiencing it.

so i did some research, which means talking to my lawyer cousin and my accountant mother, and they both told me if this ever happens to me take these steps

1. Call the bank and freeze the account, if someone can deposit into your account with out your concent they can withdraw from your account.
2. go to the bank talk to bank manager in person perferably and find out if it is your and legit, everything in writing
3. Request new bank account, cards, everything new with different numbers, and a account to account transfer.
4. party

First of all I'd be very happy! Then I'd make the bank put it in writing that the money is legally mine that way if they try to get the cash back as they "made a mistake" you have it in writing thus your ass is covered

Friends of ours here in Australia found $75,000AUD deposited in their account one day. They just opened a new account and left that one untouched for 2 years I think, after which they could do whatever they wanted legally.

How can this be such a mystery to you guys?
Obviously someone meant to send it to a different bankaccount but made a little mistake in the numbers.

It's very likely for that person to notify the bank of his mistake and the bank will return the money to the original person.
So spending it right away is a very bad decision.

Though it might become yours legally once the person hasn't notified the bank on time.
I know in my country you can't ask to get it back once it's over a month old. But you'd have to check that for your country.

Edit:
And I have to add, I've experienced both sides of it through my internships.
One time the company where I used to work kept paying me for 2 months after I stopped working there. But they noticed and asked for the money back. Even though it's their mistake, I couldn't hold on to it since they would simply go to court over it.

And another company I worked for was a bit lazy with paying me, so I kept asking for it. The last time I asked for it they told me they had already paid it, but I hadn't received anything so we went to check what went wrong. Apparently they had mistaken one number of my bank account, so it went to the wrong person. Luckily they could claim their money back before the transaction was outdated.

---------- Post added 2012-06-18 at 03:16 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Cheersbrah

You can't just say "HURR NOT MY FAULT" you will get fucked up if you spend it...it's only a matter of time

Exactly, once the sender realizes the mistake and notifies the bank and goes to court... you're fucked if you have spend anything.